ur coverage of the US election was of such high quality and quantity that it seems churlish to note a couple of slips. We captured the hurly burly of the closing days of the campaign with this malapropism: “Criss-crossing the country at a peripatetic pace, Trump addressed voters at nine separate events on Saturday and Sunday.”
Thanks to Andrew Ruddle for pointing out that we probably meant “hectic”. “Peripatetic” does indeed mean “travelling from place to place”, such as a peripatetic teacher who works in more than one school or college, but it does not suggest a hurried pace. Indeed, it comes from the Greek peripatetikos, “walking up and down”, which implies a more leisurely progress.
Out damned spot: In another article after voting had closed, we wrote about both sides combining to “get to work trying to erase the indelible tangerine stain”. As John Schluter wrote to say, the point about something that is indelible is that you can’t delete or remove it. It is one of those negatives that has lost its positive. Instead of talking about “delible” pens, we tend to buy “washable” markers. Personally, I think Donald Trump’s legacy will turn out to be washable.
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